pu-erh of the day. Sheng or Shou

7961 Replies
curlygc said

Drinking some Pretty Girls, from the w2t new shu collection. It’s absolutely wonderful. A touch sweeter than Old Reliable, and also incredibly strong. I don’t normally flash steep my shu b/c I like it strong, but this tea requires flash steeping. It’s Special Dark strong! Brews up a deep, dark reddish brown. No fermentation flavor that I can discern. I’m on steep four or five, not sure how many it’ll go but I suspect it’s going to have some staying power. I will likely be purchasing a cake of this.

AllanK said

I have one of those coming in the mail, glad you liked it.

jschergen said

Nice. Sounds like a real winner.

Login or sign up to post a message.

t-ching said

2007 Menghai 7452, started off sweet and vanilla, really got nice and dark in later steeps. I’ll probably buy a cake of this

Login or sign up to post a message.

MzPriss said

2007 YQH Qizhong. Tasty!

Login or sign up to post a message.

2015 Old Reliable. A nice tea for a lazy Sunday afternoon

Login or sign up to post a message.

jwicked207 said

2005 YQH Tsang Liu and 2015 YS Green Miracle.

kevdog19 said

YQH Tsang Liu… +1

Hope you liked it

jschergen said

How’d you both like it?

kevdog19 said

Definitely worth trying at least once.

jwicked207 said

I’m buying a cake!

jschergen said

Nice! It’s a good one.

mrmopar said

That would be a good investment for future drinking. I have the Green Miracle to get into soon as well. Had to let it hydrate a bit in the pumi.

jwicked207 said

In my limited experience it’s very very good. If you all have any suggestions for anything like it I’m all ears.

I’ll be buying a couple cakes of the Green Miracle as well. For that price and taste its worth it for drinking now. I’d like to see how the lightly fermented cake will age.

Do you have any links to your Pumi? Now that I’m buying cakes I’d like to store some items rather than trying to drink it all before it goes bad.

mrmopar said
jwicked207 said

Thanks for sharing. Hope my storage matches half of that!

jschergen said

jwicked207. Some other (cheaper) semi-aged sheng that’s good is the Wild Peacock and a few of the Hou de leftovers (2005 Mengku mushucha, 2007 Chenguanghetang Hongyin). Probably nothing as good as the Tsangliu, but enjoyable.

mrmopar said

@jwicked207 hit me up when you want to put a pumidor together.Shou and sheng will need to be totally apart from any air flow or other things.

jwicked207 said

Thanks @jschergen. I’ll be checking those out. I’m all for enjoyable. The Tsangliu was pretty intense for me. Don’t need that all the time.

@mrmopar. thanks and I will def. contact you when I start to set it up. I’m looking for an old fridge to use. I may need to find a smaller solution but would love to get feedback on your experiences storing.

mrmopar said

For sure no problems. I would just measure the items you want to store and buy one with enough space to grow cause it will. I have one that the shelves are deep enough for me to go two deep.

Login or sign up to post a message.

I’m having an enjoyable revisit with the ‘08 Xiaguan ’Happy Tuo’ tonight. From memory, the smoke is slightly reduced, hay-like flavors are evolving into a deeper sweetness, and astringency is better balanced. Glad I picked up a few more from puerhshop recently.

Login or sign up to post a message.

AllanK said

Today I had my second session with the 2014 Yunnan Nonpareil Menghai Ancient Tree Raw Puer by Berylleb King Tea. This tea was strong. There was a little bit of bitterness but not that much. While some sweet notes developed in later steeps I would not use the term apricot. They were more subtle. It had a potent and slightly bitter aftertaste. As to the claim about the tea. Berylleb claims that this is from 400 year old trees. While Berylleb has a good track record of telling the truth I still take the claim with a grain of salt. I believe that they at least believe this to be true. In any case this is a nice sheng for a good price. If it is still on sale it is going for $45. Quite a price for ancient tree sheng. As to the qi, it definitely has some but it seems mild. No tea drunk from this sheng. Another might feel a stronger effect as I rarely feel much effect from a tea. Overall this was very good tea. I hope it will age well.

Login or sign up to post a message.

Ginkosan said

For some reason old Sheng isn’t doing it for me this winter… This morning I broke out the remaining crumbs of my 2013 San Ke Shu. Dear God was it pungent and bitter (also slightly rough on my stomach). It might just be more bitter because like I said I’m getting down to the scraps and the leaves are more fragmented, but it retained remarkable depth and balance despite being very very ku cha.

Login or sign up to post a message.

AllanK said

I guess every puerh tea can’t be great. Today I drank the 2008 Yunnan Xiaguan refueling China Ripe Puer Tea. Berylleb usually does better. It had a strong and unpleasant fermentation taste that persisted for for or five steeps. Even after the fermentation taste was gone there was an unpleasant taste for several more steeps. It did improve remarkably in the ninth and tenth steep but this couldn’t overcome the initial unpleasantness. This is a tea I will not be recommending to people. However, I will store it for a few months and try it again. Maybe it will improve. Maybe it wasn’t given enough of a rest after delivery from China. I only received it in the mail two weeks ago.

Login or sign up to post a message.

Zack S. said

Hey guys! Figured I should post this here instead of make a new topic for it. I’m about to place my first Puerh order today. In the past, I have enjoyed things from the Mandala sampler such as Noble Mark, Heart of the Old Tree, and Wild Monk… just to get an idea of my tastes thusfar. This time I am going to try White2Tea and currently in my Cart I have 25g samples of 2015 If-Youre-Reading-This-Its-Too-Late, 2015 Last Thoughts, 2015 Pound Cake, and 2015 Bosch… all based on their Steepster reviews.

Before I place my order, I am looking for any last recommendations of 25g samples from White2Tea that are MUST TRYS or that match my previous taste preferences from Mandala listed above. I’m also looking for one that is of the deep-savory-roasty type of profile!

jschergen said

This doesn’t match your profile but I’d highly recommend getting some repetitions with something with age. The Airplane Yiwu would be a decent bet there. May not like it at first, but it’s an alright enough example.

For young tea, I think that’s plenty. Good range of quality too.

Ol’ Reliable, Pretty Girls, and the Lao Cha Tou would be good ripe additions.

mrmopar said

I will add Repave to the list you have. I haven’t tried the ripes as of yet but the Airplane Yiwu as jschergen would let you have a little something with age to sample that type of older sheng.

boychik said

Colbert Holland.

Zack S. said

Thx for the suggestions, adding a few of these to my cart! I cant seem to find the Airplane Yiwu. Do you mean to say the Rocket Yiwu?

mrmopar said

Yes Rocket Yiwu.

jschergen said

Yep. Rocket Yiwu is what I meant.

Zack S. said

Added! Couple things I’d like to know before I place the order. I’d like to know if these will keep well over time? I’d like to be able to try each, then finish them over the course of a year (or more!), while I attempt to finally sipdown the other teas in my cupboard. I’m sure sheng/shou react differently to time and oxygen, I’m just not sure HOW.

Also, wondering how you guys typically brew your puerh if you were given no steeping instructions? In the past I have done 6-7g per 3oz of 205F water after a single rinse. But recently I’ve been reading of double rinses and lower/higher leaf ratios. Can someone plz set the record straight!

jschergen said

Those brewing methods are fairly standard. I’d just mess around by feel from there.. Definitely many different ways to brew and I think the parameters you have are good.

The teas will keep fine. Just keep em in their sample baggies and you’ll be good to go!

I’ll also add that W2T is a very solid choice and I think you’ll be pleased with most if not all of the teas.

Zack S. said

Thx for the replies! I looked into all of the teas you guys recommended and they all sound worth a try, so I added ALL of them to my order =) I’m picking up 25g samples of 2015 It’s Too Late, 2015 Last Thoughts, 2015 Pound Cake, 2015 Bosch, 2015 Old Reliable House Blend, 2015 Pretty Girl, 2014 Laochatou, 2007 Repave, 2005 Rocket Yiwu, and 2015 Colbert Holland. “I didn’t plan on ordering this much”… is the phrase I say to myself pretty much everytime I place a tea order >_>

Looking forward to digging into these! It’s almost a shame that they will likely last a while in my cupboard, because I can’t wait for the day when these are all finished so that I can dive into puerh from another company like Mandala or Yunnan Sourcing!

mrmopar said

And if you add one of those tasting sets from W2T you can put the coupon code (basics) in before check out and get free shipping.

Login or sign up to post a message.

Login or sign up to leave a comment.